Apple announced its venture into the mixed reality space with its Vision Pro headset. Although the device costs $3,500, the use cases are pretty limited. Basically, it is just a rich person's fancy accessory. While the headset will not reach users' hands until sometime in early 2024, Android fans might have to wait for some time to get their hands on a rival XR headset from Samsung.
It was reported a few weeks ago that the Apple Vision Pro forced Samsung's design team to redesign its XR headset. Do note that by XR, Samsung means Extended Reality, which includes AR and VR. The latest report from SBS Biz states that the Samsung XR headset will be delayed by two quarters (six months). The XR headset was initially planned for February 2024 but will reportedly launch in mid-2024 or later.
Samsung and Google want XR to be a platform rather than a competition for the upcoming Meta Quest 3
However, according to the memos sent to the display partners, Samsung has decided to review its internal specifications and performance. Because of the design change and other tweaks, the Samsung XR headset will make a delayed entry into the market. The launch could happen sometime in mid-2024.
Samsung wants to bring out the best product to compete with Apple Vision Pro, and one of the important reasons for the delay is that Samsung wants to put in higher-resolution displays on its headsets than Apple's. Regardless of the delay, Google is still working on the software for the Samsung XR headset. Moreover, Google has canceled plans to launch its AR headset and instead decided to put in all of its efforts to ensure that the upcoming XR headset is the best.
This also hints that Samsung and Google don't want to make a VR headset that will compete with the upcoming Meta Quest 3 headset. Both companies want to make XR a platform and take things forward from there in the world of mixed reality.
